Advances in magnetic recording head technology are driven in large part by increasing the areal density of a recording media within a storage drive. As the areal density of the recording media increase, the dimensions of one or more write poles corresponding to the recording media decreases. Further, if all other factors are equal, the magnetic field generated by a write pole of diminishing size also diminishes. This increases the signal to noise ratio of the magnetic field generated by the write pole, which may be undesirable.
A major factor that controls the magnetic field generated by the write pole is the saturation flux density, or magnetic moment, of the write pole material. Providing a write pole material that has a higher magnetic moment allows the write pole to diminish in size and maintain a desired magnetic field magnitude. As a result, the write pole material is typically made of the highest magnetic moment material feasible given cost, performance, availability, and other constraints.